"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." -Albert Einstein

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Another Fishing Adventure (Deer Bait)

Hey interweb. The other day I stopped by a local river to do some fishing while I had a little bit of spare time. It is one of my favorite spots to fish because it is shallow enough to wade around for a decent distance, it is convenient, and there are a lot of downed logs and things that provide good cover and consequently good places to fish. I usually just stop by when I am on my way to or from something and have some time to waste with nothing else to do. So I pulled into the gravel lot to a skidding stop like I always do, pulled out the fishing pole that stays in my car, and my backpack full of gear. I put my dollar store crocks on and headed down to the water. I fished for about 45 minutes, caught a few small mouth bass, some blue gill and other sunfish. I looked at my phone to check the time, and saw that I had about an hour left to fish. I decided to go the opposite direction for the remainder of my time to find some new areas to fish.

As I turned around, I saw it. A huge 12 pt buck, a deer that easily weighed in excess of 175 lbs standing in the middle of the river taking a drink. I decided to try and just mosey around him and try to go unnoticed because deer can be quite aggressive. I thought it was going to work until I got to within about 100 feet of him, at which point he slowly raised his head to address me. I stood there, as still as I possibly could hoping that he would go back to ignoring my presence. He just kept staring. I thought that maybe he just needed to watch me go by to make himself comfortable so I started to move in his general direction again. At this point, he lowered and raised his head to display his antlers in a "do you see these?! I will cut you!" kind of display. Again I stopped, hoping that I wasn't about to be mauled in revenge for the death of Bambi's mom. Trying to control my elevating heart rate, I slowly started to walk backwards against the current. I tripped over a log and fell into the water, and he took a few quick steps forward. I did the only thing that I could think of, standing up and making myself look as big as possible.

Luckily, the deer stopped. My decision was working so I continued with my ape pose and started to yell. The deer looked behind him, and started to walk away. At this point I knew that I could escape, went straight to the bank of the river and swiftly walked to my car while continuously looking over my shoulder. Who would have thought that a deer can be so scary when they weren't staring blankly into your headlights? I can't really say that I learned a lesson, but it will definitely be a fishing trip that I remember. It always amazes me how seemingly mundane activities can turn out to be things that you will never forget. If you have a story of a mundane activity that turned into something scary, awesome, or just memorable please share it in the comments!